The recently launched Google Plus 1 button, a like feature which saves preferred website pages in your Google account, is set to rival other popularity buttons. Just launched in the UK at the start of June, the blue and white +1 image is a compact button which can be displayed both on web pages and within search engine results (just Google).
Because you have to be signed in, you’re account will gather data and works in a similar way to the Facebook like feature. Plus 1 also shows which friends of yours like the same page, if you are logged in. This means in the search results when browsing, you can see which acquaintances have noted they like a particular page, which ultimately can influence click through rates for popular sites.
In an attempt to be open with regards to privacy, Google has made a clear statement and given the option (via the Google Accounts home page) to stop your plus 1′s appearing in the search results.
Disabling this option, more importantly, prevents ad changes on non-Google websites. This indicates that if left enabled, any Google Ads appearing on 3rd party websites could be influenced by your ‘plus 1′ing history‘.
For example, if you have a tendency to like car related website content, and you visited a website with Adsense code installed, Google could influence the category of advert which appears. Maybe this is in the belief that conversion rates would be increased, especially where little or no content is available on certain pages.
